


Roses Are Red.

by dragonism



Series: Original Shorts [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Victorian, Established Relationship, F/F, M/M, Romance, Short, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 05:59:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13381635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonism/pseuds/dragonism
Summary: Alice and Arthur Merryweather are two wealthy siblings in two very similar situations. After a mysterious bouquet is discovered by Arthur, both of them are lead to confess their long kept secrets.





	Roses Are Red.

**Author's Note:**

> Tagging with my character’s names because it is likely you guys will be seeing a lot more of them in time!

The air was thick with the scent of roses when Alice returned home for the day, kicking off her shoes with a certain eagerness to be free of their restraint. She’d headed into the garden, a little wood behind the family estate, to collect horse-chestnuts and had returned with a basket quite full from her travels. Collecting the large seeds had been a small tradition of her’s since she was small, and her gathering had grown exponentially over the years, though usually her brother would join her.

Today, her brother was sat waiting for her when she climbed the stairs to her bedroom. His hand clutching a bouquet of roses and a haunting expression over his usually jovial face.

“Rosamund.” He said softly, with no sting behind his voice but instead a tug at his lip.

“Rosamund?” Alice replied with sincere confusion.

“Yes, Rosamund.” Arthur was in no state of waiting for his sister to catch on, “Who is she?”

“She’s a friend.” Curiously, Alice placed down her basket and moved to fix her hair in her mirror, all the while never making eye contact with her brother.

“No friend sends twenty roses, Alice, and one is thornless too.” Her brother seemed to have non malice in his words, merely stern interest, as though he were simply pestering for information.

“Then you know what she means to me.”

“You’re homosexual.”

“Must we dwell on things so careless as titles?” It was now that the young woman turned to face her sibling, a soft smile gracing her expression, “I am in love, my dear brother.”

Arthur sighed, taking his sister’s hands in his own, “You’re sure?” And with his sister’s nod he continued. “Father will be nothing if not furious.”

“Dammed what father thinks, he is a mere spec in a story that has since moved onwards.”

The pair’s eyes met and it was at that very moment that Arthur at last smiled, pulling his sibling into a warm and comfortable hug as she laughed long and loud. They stayed like that for a moment before Alice broke away, pulling her brother over towards her bed for them to sit again.

“You read the card?” She asked with an extensive excitability.

“Well, of course, I wouldn’t have known-“

“Read it to me!” Arthur raised an eyebrow at his sister, but picked up the small slip of card none the less and began to read, watching as Alice fell backwards to lie across the soft mattress as he did.

“Dearest Alice, it has been much too long since we saw one another last. I wait every day for your messages to arrive, my mother as excited as I when they finally do.”

“Oh, her mother is so kind! So talented!” Alice exclaimed, willing Arthur to go on despite her interuption.  
“Today I send fresh roses, from a park I long to take you to when a day arrives that I may.”

This made Alice prop herself up on her elbows, stretching to see the card in her intrigue. The words, whilst they were a wisp of breath in the air, hung heavy on her heart- wishing nothing more than to show her love to the world as love should be allowed. She made a face of longing, her nose scrunched just slightly and her lips soft with happiness.

Arthur seemed amused by this silent reaction, and went on with a smile of his own, “They share my name, and with such I hope they remind you of me. Soon could not come fast enough. Your Love, Rose.”

“Oh Rose! Sweet Rose!” Dramatic as ever, and wishful in her endeavours, Alice threw herself to lay down once more, continuing on as she did, “Do you see brother? You must see!”

“She’s charming, I must say.” Her brother nodded agreeably, and moved to sit more comfortably before laying down beside his sister. They both stared at the ceiling, Arthur tracing it’s patterns with his gaze, “How long?”

“Six months and two days.”

“How precise.” He laughed, resting his hands on his stomach, “And you’ve kept such a secret for that long?”

“We meet near the willow tree, out of sight and harm.” Alice sighed, “And her mother knows quite well of our relationship, she’s entirely supportive of Rose.”

“If only we could say as much about our father.”

“We?” The woman turned to look at her brother, watching him survey the room’s painted ceiling with squinted eyes and furrowed brows.”

“Might I tell you a secret, Allie?”

Alice, growing curious, creased her own brows as she continued to look at her brother, and soon enough he turned to face her too, “Well of course.”

“There’s a boy-“

“A boy?!”

“Let me continue! Dear sister you grow too full of spirit.” Arthur chuckled, shaking his head and smiling, “Edwin. He makes hats in the lower part of town.”

“A hatter?” Alice seemed to think for a moment before clarity overcame her confusion, and she shot up to sit, “Your new top hat!”

“Yes, it’s one of his.” Her brother, fiddling with his sleeve, seemed to flush a red particularly similar to the flowers beside him. “He has no parents, an orphan in one of the workhouses until he grew old enough to start his business. He sends me letters.”

Alice, though bursting with comments to make and words to thread into sentences, stayed quiet for a moment. Allowing her brother time to continue. Could it be that she and him were blessed with the same fortune of meeting a partner made for them? What does it matter their gender or class, soon her brother would be lord of the house and the rules would be theirs to make.

“None the less, he is far from an upperclassman, which father would loathe enough if he were merely so much as a friend.”

“But he is more than a friend?”

“He is.” Arthur followed his sister’s earlier movement and sat up from her bed, his brows furrowed once more and his gaze still distant in the room, “I fear I may love him.”

“Oh Arthur that’s brilliant!”

Her brother seemed only confused by her enthusiasm, tilting his head in a way as though to silently question her words. It was clear he doubted the positive notion of their partners, doubted his relationship’s ability to last so long in the hostility of their era. However Alice, with her creativity and quick thoughts, saw a great deal of favourable situations this new information provided.

“How could this be brilliant, sister?”

“Can’t you see?” With a shake of his head, Alice was provided with the answer she needed to roll her eyes and continue, “You need a girlfriend to trick our father and I need a boyfriend to do the same.”

A small ‘O’ shape formed on Arthur’s lips and suddenly he realised just what his sister was hinting at, “We swap! And if ever we want them to visit, father will make Rosamund share a room with you, and Edwin with me!”

“Precisely!”

“But Edwin, he’s lower class, father would never allow him here. You’d be punished for even considering falling for such a man.”

“What if I were to convince father of the advantages to such?” Alice stood from her bed and swung her dress with her, placing her hands out in front of her to move them as she spoke of her plan, “Ever since mother’s death, father has had much less a care as to what I do. I’ve gotten away with far more than I should all, simply, because the only things that matter to him are his fortune and his heir.”

“He does love you, though.”

“Well yes, yes. Of course. However he doesn’t look to me to set an example the way he does you.”

Arthur had the pressure of becoming the new lord of the family looming over his shoulders each day, and it wasn’t long before the day arrived that he would be given such an honour in his father’s passing and as such meant that close attention was paid to Alice’s brother’s reputation above her own. Alice had sneaked out of the manor to stay with Rose for three days, and returned with no more than a tap on the back of her hand as punishment.

This meant that the plan she was developing could not only work, but work with great efficiency for as long as the two siblings may need it to.

“So you’re suggesting you could convince father to allow you to date somebody such as Edwin?” The words seemed foreign to Arthur after learning of his sister’s sexuality and after dating Edwin himself for such a time.

“Even more than merely convincing him to allow it, I could convince him of it being a good idea for the family.” Alice smiled broadly, grasping for the bouquet on her bed and taking time to take in the scent of the sweet flowers as she continued, “Imagine, a family of aristocrats taking in a poor hatter to raise to nobility. Father would be all over the ridiculous idea as long as it promised him a section in the newest paper release, and this would most certainly be front page.”

“My god, you’re right. Aristocracy is ridiculous enough to consider this one of their good deeds.”

“Now you’re beginning to understand!” She laughed, nodding furiously and waving her hands, “Though I would write to Edwin to explain the ordeal, or he may think we’re as awful as the rest.”

“Of course.”

“So when will I meet my new boyfriend, hm?”

This time it was Arthur’s turn to roll his eyes, huffing an amused sigh, “He’s still my love.”

His sister poked playfully at his arm and laughed, a warm laugh that filled the whole room with the same glee she felt, “But of course.”

A silence fell over the pair as they smiled. Arthur moving to lay down once more and Alice walking over to were she’d set down the roses her partner had sent. She sifted through the bouquet and plucked out the rose missing its thorns, walking over to hold it out to her brother, “Send him a rose.”

“I couldn’t-“

“Then take it in person.” Alice pushed the flower closer to her brother and nodded, “Take him a rose.”

This time Arthur didn’t fight the suggestion, instead he reached up and took the rose from his sister, twirling its neat stem between his fingers, “I shall have to take it today, to keep it fresh.”

“All the better excuse to see him.”

Her brother, a naturally awkward man, blushed even deeper than before and spoke quietly, “Will you join me?”

“Might I bring Rosamund?” Alice raised her brow, a questioning expression that said she was desperate for a specific response from her brother. Rose had been right to say it had been too long since they’d last saw one another, and now they had the perfect cover for their meetings in the form of Arthur.

“You might.” Arthur smiled, nodding carefully in the knowledge that his sister was as happy as he was.  
“The I shall come. Find your hat my dear brother, do not wear it.” Alice was already making her way downstairs when she’d finished her sentence, and her brother sprung up in confusion to follow her.

“Do not wear it?”

“Use it to hide the rose, a surprise is always kind.”

Arthur took a moment to acknowledge his sister’s words, enthralled by her experience despite her two years of youth under him, and nevertheless grabbed at his accessory, placing the rose inside and holding the stiff hat to his chest as he chased his sister’s footsteps down the stairs.

Both of their hearts thudded with excitement.

Both of them quick to leave.

They were listening to the steady thud of the carriage wheels on the cobbled road, listening to the flitter of birds amongst the trees, listening to the cheerful hums that Alice sang as the neared a new beginning for them both.

 


End file.
